Los Angeles Street Vendors Under Scrutiny
Eastern Group Publications, News Report, Gilbert Estrada, Posted: May 09, 2005
In an economy where the Wal-Marts, Gaps, and Nikes of the world control an exorbitant amount of the total capital, it’s hard to imagine “mom and pop” stores surviving in a free market. Even less imaginable, but equally significant, is the impact of the informal economy, which has received boisterous attention in recent months due to California’s ongoing, often hostile immigration debate.
And street vendors may be the most visible, identifiable face of the not so underground economy.
These sidewalk merchants have been an integral part of the Southland’s economy, selling goods ranging from CDs, pillows, and DVDs, to elotes, raspados, and chicharrones for as long as anyone can remember. And although street vendors are usually found in immigrant communities like Bell Gardens or East Los Angeles, they can also be found in communities of every economic level.
Still, street vendors usually represent a sector of the economy not represented at higher income levels.
“It’s very, very difficult to make a living by selling on the streets, you do that when you don’t have any other options,” said Diego Cardoso at a recent panel discussion sponsored in part by the California Humanities Council, L.A. Cultural Affairs Department and Self-Help Graphics under the title Custom Mobile Commerce (CMC). The CMC project “recognizes vendors’ contributions to the community, culture and economy,” and was intended to develop a “prototype model of an intelligent tool that can be used to satisfy the concerns of each stakeholder,” according to their flyer.
“Street vending has always been an activity that throughout history has taken place,” continued Cardoso who is employed with the MTA and helped negotiate secure spaces for vendors at certain MTA locations.
Besides being illegal in most of the county and nearly every part of the City of Los Angeles, street vendors have often come under fire because of what many perceive to be their negative public health implications, including improper and unhealthy cooking, storing and handling of food products. But the very illegality of street vending, which is intended to protect public health, may actually be harming the health of people who still choose to purchase food from these mobile vendors.
“Street vendors are always [with] fear that someone is going to come out and do something to them so they never have a chance to set up a situation which will be more helpful to them and to the client,” said Cardoso as he explained that a vendor’s haste to evade the law often leads to undercooked or under prepared food which can often cause illness.
“The situation, when you create something like that, [is] they don’t have the time to sell quality [food], therefore people get sick, therefore people are gonna say don’t vend on the street because you’re gonna get sick,” said Cardoso.
In the City of Los Angeles, the region’s first legal street vending district was created in an effort to quell some of these health and other urban blight problems.
In 1999, MacArthur Park was selected to host a trial program for street vending; two other districts in San Pedro and Pacoima were initiated but later failed. Although hundreds of vendors signed up to become “legal” vendors, problems quickly ensued. Nearly 90 percent of the interested vendors were hoping to continue selling hot foods, but because it took nearly three years for the Health Department to okay the process, many returned to “illegal” vending, including a woman who made more money selling individual cigarettes.
With a litany of insurance, vender, and permit fees totaling nearly $800 annually, and with the price of regulated carts reaching $8,000, the program was quickly threatened to fail before it even began.
In desperation, the Institute for Urban Research and Development (IURD) compromised and came up with the idea of selling tamales, arguing they were easy to make and sell.
Today, Mama’s Hot Tamales Café is an example of the success of “legalizing” street vendors into the formal economy. Other successes have occurred in MacArthur Park, including the reduction of area crime which has been attributed in part to the watchful eye of law abiding street vendors.
“I really think that the vending program has had an impact in helping to clean up MacArthur Park because the vendors that did have their carts called the cops” to report illegal activity, said Sandra Romero of Mama’s Hot Tamales. Together with IURD, Mama’s Tamales also offers business courses instructing vendors on the latest business tactics. Graduates of the program have subsequently opened up successful restaurants and have even earned enough to purchase a home in Southern California’s booming real estate market.
Yet, the legalization of Mama’s Tamales is an anomaly. In the County of Los Angeles, street vending is largely illegal and those who do it are referred to as “peddlers,” someone who is “engaged in the business of itinerant peddling, selling, hawking, or vending” of any items, according to the County municipal code. The action of these “hawkers and peddlers” have caused controversy due to unwanted crowds at schools, excessive noise from unlicensed taco trucks, and littering to name a few of the problems associated with the street based businesses, according to CMC panelist Carrie Sutkin, former Planning Deputy for County of LA’s First District.
Although the “criminal act of vending” is often associated with undocumented immigrants, bigger businesses have also been guilty of crossing the line to the informal economy to increase sales. According to Sutkin, it is not uncommon for established neighborhood restaurants to utilize taco trucks and lease space from gas stations or parking lots, which is illegal, in order to sell their products.
Locally, the problem of illegal vending has occurred near Whittier Boulevard in Boyle Heights, where police officers in conjunction with county officials cracked down on illegal vending. Most local businesses support the regulation of street vending, because of the legal licensing requirements they often bypass, a situation which store-bound businesses say creates unfair competition. Legal businesses are often required to pay substantial license fees and meet health and safety requirements. But street vendors largely go unchecked and can operate at an advantage to regulated businesses.
But the recent CMC panel study asserts that large segments of the population are in favor of the entrepreneurial spirit of street vendors and the service they provide to the community, in spite of any so-called dangers.
“Vendors temporarily transform the urban landscape by adding a rhythmic activity to the street,” wrote James Rojas from Latino Urban Forum, another sponsor of the CMC study.
“Street vendors in Latino LA add an importance to the streets by bringing services to people. Their ephemeral nature bonds people and the place together.”
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